Water project put in jeopardy

The planned construction of a water pipeline to run from the Downeast Correctional Facility (DCF) to homes in the Bucks Harbor region of Machiasport appears to be in jeopardy. The project was earmarked for completion by the end of 2018 but was interrupted when the LePage administration abruptly closed the facility in early February of 2018.
The newly elected Mills administration and the Department of Corrections (DOC), under the leadership of Commissioner Randall Liberty, are pursuing the establishment of a pre‑release facility at potential sites in Machias or East Machias, rather than reopening of DCF in Machiasport. The plan looks to purchase and renovate a smaller building to house prisoners nearing completion of their sentences, leaving the prison shuttered and potentially killing a planned water pipeline.
The status and future use of DCF remains a hot topic. The public outcry continues with a clear majority of people in the area in favor of using the DCF facility in some capacity. The new administration has indicated that much of the internal facility systems were removed after June 2018, when the prison was officially closed. The DOC believes it would cost more to bring DCF back online than to establish a pre‑release center. But the public along with a number of Washington County representatives, including Rep. Will Tuell of East Machias, disagree, saying permanent closure results in loss of jobs, loss of a proven program of rehabilitation through trades training and a substantial impact to the economy because of current manpower shortages.
For a number of residents in Bucks Harbor, whether DCF is reopened or remains shuttered is not their primary concern. Safe and clean drinking water is what they have been demanding for a long time. In 2016, at a special town meeting, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) presented a decision document finally addressing the problem with the design and construction of a public water pipeline that would run from DCF to homes impacted by contaminants.

A facility with a long story
In 1955 the U.S. Air Force (USAF) built and established a radar tracking station on Howard Mountain in Bucks Harbor that was used jointly with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as an airways radar facility. In 1979 the USAF turned the facility over to the FAA but retained government personnel there as radar operators. In 1981 the Department of Defense replaced the last active duty USAF personnel with civilian radar operators. Today, military radar data is still collected and fed via a joint link to an Air Force facility in Syracuse, N.Y., and to the FAA's Boston

Regional Traffic Control Center.
In September 1984 the State of Maine purchased the area around the radar installation and established the DCF. In 1991 USACE designated the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to oversee the examination and potential cleanup of the Bucks Harbor facility. In 1994 USACE found 11 different chemicals while removing fuel tanks from housing units located below the radar site. At the time of the tank removal, one chemical, trichloroethylene (TCE), raised the most concern. Further testing determined 15 private wells in the area were contaminated. USACE had point of entry charcoal filtration systems (POET) installed at the homes and began discussions on a remediation process.
Pursuant to the town-approved 2016 decision document, in July 2017 a contract was awarded to CCI Alliance of Augusta in the amount of $1,553,397 for the installation of a public water hub and water pipeline. This came a year after USACE hired Colby Company Engineering of Portland to come up with a design that would upgrade the current public water system in use at DCF, as well as provide a pipeline of water to residents needing it in Bucks Harbor.
TCE was the standard cleaning agent for equipment used in radar surveillance. It was common practice to dispose of the chemical in dry wells, as no one at that time knew of its potential to contaminate groundwater. TCE has since been classified as a carcinogen.
Iver McLeod of the DEP was quoted at the time saying, "I started working on this project 15 years ago, and I never expected we'd still be talking about it." After years of testing and analysis, it was determined that cleaning the groundwater aquifer was not possible and more harm would be done because of fractures within the bedrock and the potential to spread the contaminant. It was further determined that natural attenuation would eventually remove the TCE. McLeod added, "This situation, TCE in fractured bedrock, down a peninsula 12 miles from the closest water source, is a perfect storm. It has everything wrong with it."
Today, USACE continues to monitor 14 test wells and annually draws water samples from homes in the area to monitor contaminant levels. Years of recorded data show levels of TCE dropping through natural attenuation, and it has not traveled beyond the institutional control zone, which was established by USACE.

Sudden DCF closure was beginning of the end
Marie Wojtas, USACE project manager, said that residents of Bucks Harbor were notified in February 2018 that, because of the sudden closure of DCF, the installation of an approved and budgeted water pipeline had been stopped. "The issue that we were not expecting is that the facility would close before the water line hub was installed," says Wojtas. "This complicated the process from the perspective of funding the cost of the installation without a known operator at the time of installation."
"We concur with USACE that once the State of Maine determines the disposition of the DCF property, we will have a better understanding of how best to proceed," says David Madore, communications director for the DEP. "Until such time, residents in the Howard Mountain area with TCE in their well water continue to be protected with POET systems ensuring that no one is being exposed to unacceptable levels of contaminants. We continue to dialog with all parties involved and remain available to work with USACE and DOC once a final determination has been made."
Currently, two legislative bills to reopen the prison are being considered. Rep. Tuell's bill, LD 128, "would be a straight‑up reopening of" the DCF facility with the same staffing and inmate levels, Tuell explains. The other bill, proposed by State Senator Marianne Moore, would use $10 million from a $147 million bond passed in 2016 to improve and update the existing DCF building and grounds. A vote on either bill has not yet been scheduled.
"It is unfortunate that the DCF closed and that recent news indicates that it may not reopen," says Wojtas. "We remain committed to exploring an alternate water supply for those impacted by the groundwater contamination in the area and will continue to monitor the area, and the USACE will maintain the water filtration systems that are currently installed in homes where contaminant concentrations exceed the maximum contaminant level."
If DCF remains closed permanently, Wojtas advises the USACE will provide a letter to affected residents letting them know of the status, and USACE will work with the state and discuss possible options with DEP to evaluate and determine alternatives for a permanent water supply.